Being Mindful of Equity

Designing Conversational Assessment with Equity in Mind

The design of any assessment should be done with concern for equity and fairness. Utilizing natural language algorithms has some potential benefits as well as possible pitfalls. One potential advantage is the ability of natural language processing to cross easily into other languages. Google's Dialogflow is available in over thirty languages and dialogs, with other platforms supporting many languages as well. Additionally, the strength of using artificial intelligence is that it can be trained to recognize slang, misspellings, unique speech patterns, colloquial language and more. If trained and designed well, students should be able to converse with the chatbot in their own natural way and the agent will recognize their speech just as well as any other student. I've included below some general concerns for equity in both technology and science education domains.

A Plan for Technology Equity

Computers, phones, tablets, and other technology pieces have the potential to be democratizing forces in the lives of students, but there are hurdles that prevent pragmatic realization of that ideal. As a classroom teacher, I’ve focused on making sure that I integrate technology seamlessly and teach kids how to use computers at a high level so that they can take those skills with them out into the rest of their lives. As a technology director, I work to ensure that all kids have equal access and that lack of experience or socioeconomic factors don't serve to impede a student's ability to use technology for learning. To that end, I've conducted several professional development sessions in which I model the technology use from a teacher perspective, and teachers are asked to learn as their students learn. They become students in a Canvas and are asked to complete and submit assignments as students do. This simple activity has greatly enhanced our usage of Canvas, and it also allows teachers to gain confidence and experience they need to provide scaffolding for their students with technology.

Dr. Raible's course asked us to create a plan for equity within our own position or sphere of influence. Mine is included in the powerpoint below. Some of the most important parts of my job are ensuring access to technology for every student. All of the students in our school have access to a device, with grades 7-12 being allowed to take the devices home. The wealth of information available on the internet has to be within reach of all students. I am now working on an initiative to make sure that students have internet access in their homes. Those who have had less exposure to technology prior to coming to school sometimes have a more difficult time navigating required activities in school. Teacher training and awareness is an important piece of that puzzle.